Ever heard a song on the radio and wanted to buy it? Well, the record companies have surely wished you would. And now, thanks to a deal between the megalithic Clear Channel radio conglomerate and iTunes, you’ll be able to do just that. Clear Channel has rolled out a new tagging feature to more than 340 of its digital radio stations, letting listeners identify songs and easily purchase them from iTunes.
It’s not entirely clear to me from Clear Channel’s press release how this magical process works, but here’s what they say:
“Radio continues to be the number one way that people discover new music, and the HD Radio iTunes tagging capability lets listeners add songs to their iPod playlists with just a push of the button,” said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio.
Well, thanks Clear Channel, how crazy altruistic of you. Now we’ll at last be able to figure out what those three annoying pop songs are—you know, the ones that you play over and over again until we want to put our eyes out. Oh, and I bet the fact that you’re getting a revenue cut for those songs doesn’t hurt either, neh?
I believe you’ll need some special equipment to take advantage of this feature, specifically radio receivers from the likes of iBiquity, JBL, JVC, Sony, and others. Not sure it’s quite worth it for me, as I rarely listen to music on the radio.
[via Bloomberg]
hahahaha... I have probably listened to the radio about 10 times since buying my first generation iPod...
For me the number one way I get access to new music is through iTunes. There's no way I'd ever discover some of the groups I now know of if it wasn't for iTunes...
I still advidly listen to the radio here in Los Angeles California.
I am lucky that we have to awesome radio stations KCRW (88.9 FM) which is a National Public Radio affiliate and KXLU (88.9) a college radio station.
Both are a great source for new music. I can't imagine people relying on iTunes for their new music.
Radio stations (with a varied and extensive playlist) are, in my opinion, the best way to see what is out there.
BBC 6 is also a good source for new music...
^^
With the Radio - you're listening to what someone else decides to play. I like perusing what iTunes has in different genres, seeing what others have bought and this has brought me into contact with artists I would never have discovered otherwise. Brick-and-Mortar stores can't even offer such an ability. There might be some good channels out there (and that is certainly up to each one's own taste), but having access to the amount of music that iTunes (and to an extent e-Music) has to offer expands your exposure to music you might not have considered if it was up to album art or a DJ.
everyone discovers music in their own ways. some people still do depend on commercial radio, which I think is sad, but it is their right. not everyone lives in the broadcast range of an awesome freeform public station (mine is KCMP 89.3) but kexp.com still exists for those people.
personally, I discover a lot of music through bands I already listen to, from their opening acts and also from personal recommendations of the band members. I also use the iTMS 'Just for You' feature, which is actually somewhat accurate
@ Lionel: "There's no way I'd ever discover some of the groups I now know of if it wasn't for iTunes..."
Which is a ridiculous shame because Clear Channel doesn't play anything but what they calculate people will want to hear. And that's a crappy way of looking at radio cuz I'm sick to death of the same tunes they play. They're good tunes, they're just played to death. One of our local CC channel stations is *still* playing the same 80s & 90s songs that they were playing for at least the last 5 years. Maybe CC wouldn't be in such turmoil if they'd loosen their grip a bit.
A big thumbs down on this one. The FCC rule changes that have allowed companies like Clear Channel or even more obscure funding groups to takover our media are just bad news all the way around.
We've lost much diversity in news coverage and good investigative journalism. Musicians and what we hear has really suffered with airplay becoming something of an all or nothing thing to get onto playlists nationally. Emerging artists have almost no chance of finding independent stations to give them initial exposure.
Anything for profit out-of-town station owners are doing much less to serve the local communities they're licensed to. So much for the trustees of the public interest concept.
While digital tv has some advantages, it certainly doesn't make up for the lack of committing to a maximum amount of advertising per hour. They claimed marketplace forces (competition) would drive quality, but we've gone from 10 minutes of ads an hour to about 20, and that's not counting infomercials.
So-called HD-radio isn't worth buying new hardware for. Putting frosting on something that came out of my dog doesn't make it food! We've still got PBS and a small number of good radio stations, but for the most part radio is a vast wasteland. Most of us have the intelligence to be able to be music we like without having to buy a new kind of radio.
We can hope that public outcry and a new administration can make changes at the FCC. We should all be mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore...